title: Amelanotic melanoma of the tongue.
abstract: Malignant melanoma of the oral cavity is a rare lesion, with an incidence of about 0.2% to 0.8% of all melanomas. Melanoma of tongue is still rarer and represents less than 2% of oro-nasal melanoma cases. We report a rare case of amelanotic melanoma of the tongue in a young man. The importance of consideration of melanoma in the differential diagnosis of oral cavity lesions is discussed since mucosal melanoma carries a bad prognosis and early diagnosis is vital.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Guntur Medical College, Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, India.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Venugopal
authors.forename: Iv
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Renuka
authors.forename: G Saila
authors.initials: GS
authors.lastname: Bala
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Seshaiah
keywords: Lymph node deposit; primary malignant melanoma; tongue